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Calendar, How it started an interesting account: As the crescent
appeared over the horizon once again after completing full circle on
January 10 last Thursday, it brought along with it, New Year for the
Muslims world over. “The new moon that appeared last Thursday
proclaimed the arrival of the month Moharram al-Haram. The month of
glory and resurgence”, says Rehnuma Tabassum, a student into the
Islamic studies, adding, “Moharram al-Haram is the first month of
the Islamic Calendar which is based on lunar system. With this the
Islamic Calendar, popularly known as the Hijari Calendar has leaped
into its 1429th year.”..Read
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Intefaith Dialogue

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Introducing Islam: The legal sources of Islam are the Qur'an and the
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OIC Chief
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the mummy of the most notorious dictator ever lived on earth.
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Why Do
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major news outlets meekly accepted Israel’s banning of journalists
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Gaza
diary: Are we not human?:
In a bid to stop my children twitching, jerking, trembling and
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A Messiah for
Our Time:
Prejudice is like poison. Unless purged out of one’s mind in early
stages, it can spread like cancer and make one incapable of
differentiating between right and wrong. Of the many kinds of
prejudice, the worst is to believe that one’s own religion is superior
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Prophet Muhammad's(peace
be upon him) Last Sermon: "O
People, lend me an attentive ear, for I don't know whether, after this
year, I shall ever be amongst you again. Therefore listen to what I am
saying to you carefully and take these words to those who could not
be...Read
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Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)

Who devised a Secure World:

Prejudice
is like poison. Unless purged out of one’s mind in early stages, it
can spread like cancer and make one incapable of differentiating
between right and wrong. Of the many kinds of prejudice, the worst is
to believe that one’s own religion is superior to all others, which
may be tolerated but never taken seriously or accepted as...Read
Full

The Quraysh of Makkah did not stop
from harming and oppressing Muslims even after they migrated to Madinah.
In order to stop further migration, they
started torturing the Muslims, willing to migrate, sometimes
forcibly stopped them and many times they snatched every thing
from them. Instances showed, they even snatched their dresses and
few people managed to migrate undressed and in a very miserable conditions.

Not only this, they even threatened
people of Madinah and their leader Abdullah Ibn Ubayy for their
support to the Muslims Muhajirin.

“Abdur Rahman ibn Ka'b ibn Malik reported on
the authority of a man from among the companions of the Prophet
(peace be upon him): The infidels of the Quraysh wrote (a letter) to
Ibn Ubayy and to those who worshipped idols from al-Aws and al-Khazraj,
while the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) was at that time at
Medina before the battle of Badr. (They wrote): You gave protection
to our companion. We swear by Allah, you should fight him or expel
him, or we shall come to you in full force, until we kill your
fighters and appropriate your women”

(Sunan of Abu Dawood)

These were not mere threat and
warnings. The Prophet (peace be upon him) knew the extent of the
threat from the Quraysh of Makkah and he used to spend his nights
without sleeping or sometimes sleeping with some of the companions
guarding him.

“The Prophet was vigilant one night and when he
reached Medina, he said, "Would that a pious man from my companions
guard me tonight!" Suddenly we heard the clatter of arms. He said,
"Who is that? " He (The new comer) replied, " I am Sad bin Abi
Waqqas and have come to guard you." So, the Prophet slept (that
night)”.

(Sahih Al-Bukhari; Narrated by Aishah)

This is also to be mentioned that this
was not just for few nights but it was routine and usual for the
companions (Ridhwanulllaho Ta’ala Unhum Ajm'aeen) to guard the
Prophet (PBUH).

It was reported by Aishah that the companions used to guard the
prophet (PBUH) till this verse was revealed upon him (PBUH):

“O Apostle! Proclaim, the (Message), which hath been sent to thee
from thy Lord. If thou didst not thou wouldst not have fulfilled and
proclaimed His mission: and Allah will defend thee from men (who
mean mischief). For Allah guideth not those who reject faith”.

(Surah Al- Maidha; Ayah 67)

And the prophet said to the companions guarding
him “Go back as the Almighty Allah had made me safe”

(Reported by At- Tirmidhi and narrated by
Aishah)

Also, the danger was not just for the
Prophet (PBUH) but all the Muslims were in danger. Ubayy bin Ka’b
reported that since the migration of the Muslims to Madinah and the
protection they received from Ansars, the whole Arab world united
against them and therefore Muslims neither spent their nights
without arms nor met the morning without arms.

It was then that Muslims were permitted
to go to war against these enemies of Allah. The Holy Qur’aan says:

“To those against whom war is made permission
is given (to fight) because they are wronged and verily Allah is
Most powerful for their aid”.

(Surah Al-Hajj; Ayah 39)

The point one should keep in mind is
that this permission for the war was not just a mere retaliation but it
was to fight the injustice and to propagate the rules of Allah. This
is also described immediately after the above verse, as the Holy
Qur’aan says:

“(They are) those who if We establish them in
the land establish regular prayer and give regular charity enjoin
the right and forbid wrong: with Allah rests the end (and decision)
of (all) affairs”.

(Surah Al-Hajj; Ayah 41)

With the permission for the war, the
Muslims planned to teach the Quraysh of Makkah few lessons. The
Quraysh of Makkah had to pass their caravans through the suburbs of
Madinah while going towards Syria, a market place. Muslims
threatened to disrupt their caravans so that they could realize
their mistakes and learn to live in peace with the Muslims.

Still, the Quraysh of Makkah did not
repent for their aggressions against Muslims and hence the Muslims
decided to attack their caravans. Some confrontation did occur
between the Muslims and the caravans of the Quraysh before the
Battle of Badr, but there was neither any bloodshed nor any looting
till the Quraysh, led by Karz bin Jabir Fehri, attacked cattle-field
near Madinah and looted and took some of the cattle belonging to
Muslims with them. It is not fare, therefore, to think it was
economical reason behind the looting of the caravans.

The Prophet sent twelve Muhajirin, led
by Abdullah bin Jah’sh, after this incidence and ordered them to go
to the passage between Makkah and Ta’if and to search for the
caravans of the Quraysh. Abdullah bin Jah’sh led them to Nakhla
after traveling a long distance from Madinah and attacked the
caravan, capturing two prominent among them and killing Amr bin
Hazrami. These were the first of killed, occupied and booty in
Islamic history.

The attack made the Quraysh panic but
they were furious of the way Muslims attacked their caravan near
Makkah and after traveling three hundred kilometers. This, they feel
as a setback and shame for their pride and myth and decided to
attack and thwart the Muslims staying in Madinah.

In the course of time after the
confrontation led by Abdullah bin Jah’sh, Allah made the war against
the infidels as compulsory and also set the rules for fighting and
denouncing the killing of women, children and the aged, forbid
mutilation, which was a tradition then during the war. The Holy
Qur’aan says:

“Fight in the cause of Allah those who
fight you but do not transgress limits; for Allah loveth not
transgressors; And slay them wherever ye catch them and turn them
out from where they have turned you out; for tumult and oppression
are worse than slaughter; but fight them not at the Sacred Mosque
unless they (first) fight you there; but if they fight you slay
them. Such is the reward of those who suppress faith;

But if
they cease Allah is Oft-Forgiving Most Merciful; And fight them on
until there is no more tumult or oppression and there prevail
justice and faith in Allah; but if they cease let there be no
hostility except to those who practice oppression”.

(Surah Al-Baqarah; Ayah 190, 191, 192,193)

With this the Muslims realized that a
battle with the Quraysh of Makkah is in waiting and ultimately it
took place on Friday, Ramadan 17, two years after Hijrah and March
624 AD at Badr, near Madinah. This was the first full-fledged battle
with Quraysh of Makkah and remembered as “Ghazwa’e Badr- The Battle of Badr”.

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